Chapter 8: Can't We Be Together?
Chapter 8: Can’t We Be Together?
"Police station?"
Half an hour later, in the counseling room, Dr. Solance looked deeply troubled as he recounted the events in a brief summary.
It turned out that Dr. Solance had spent the night in his counseling room. When he woke up in the morning, he remembered that it was the day for the new students to register, and he was responsible for part of the process.
However, he had hardly slept the past two days, and his clothes hadn't been changed in a few days, so he decided to go home early to freshen up before returning to the academy, which wasn't far from his residence.
Little did he know.
When he got home, he found that his house had been burglarized! The place was a mess.
He immediately called the police.
Miss Juniper then brought him to the Kanaz League Police Station to assist with the investigation.
Because he was afraid his phone would disturb his sleep, he had left it in his office the night before, thinking he would return quickly. This was why he had been missing for so long.
"Did anything get stolen?"
Jing He handed him a cup of water.
Dr. Solance took the water and sighed with a wry smile, "That's the strange part. I checked, and nothing valuable was taken. Only some stones that aren't particularly attractive to others were missing."
Stones?
Before anyone could react, Daimu interjected with a slightly louder voice, "Those stones?"
"Yes."
To be honest, some of those stones were indeed rare meteorites, but to most people, they were just useless rocks. Who would risk it all for a few stones?
But clearly, someone else in the room understood the value of those stones.
Daimu's expression turned serious, and it seemed he was ready to help Dr. Solance recover the stolen stones.
For some reason, Jing He had a feeling.
Could their true target be the stone with the Gastly inside that he now possessed?
It wasn't impossible.
If that was the case, and they couldn't find the stone with Dr. Solance, wouldn't they come after him?
Jing He suddenly remembered that in the original story, Dr. Solance had attracted the attention of Team Aqua and Team Magma because of a meteorite he found.
Could it be that—
He had originally intended to tell Dr. Solance that he had the stone with the Gastly inside and see if he could trade it for something else.
But now, it seemed he would have to put that off.
At least until he was sure about the motives of those people.
"As long as you're safe, that's what matters," Jing He said reassuringly.
"Thank you," Dr. Solance replied with a grateful look.
It wasn't clear if he was thanking Jing He for letting him sleep well the night before, for helping with the new student registration, or for something else.
Jing He shook his head, indicating it was no big deal.
"Alright, I need to inform the administration office. I saw a lot of missed calls on my phone just now," Dr. Solance said with a wry smile as he stood up.
"Let's go together," Jing He also stood up, and under the puzzled gazes of Dr. Solance and Daimu, he explained, "There's an issue with the computer, and I need to see if I can get a replacement."
"I can handle it. You can use mine for now. I don't use it much anyway. The application process won't be quick, so we can swap it back when it's ready," Dr. Solance suggested.
After a brief hesitation, Jing He agreed, "Alright."
Dr. Solance left, and the counseling room was left with Jing He, deep in thought, and Daimu, who looked serious.
After a while, Daimu suddenly snapped back to reality.
They had only talked about half of the issue with Metang.
He composed himself and said, "Teacher Jing, about Metang—"
Jing He also came backtorealityandsmiled, "Don't worry, the issue with Metang isn't serious. A bit of psychological guidance should do the trick."
Hearing this, Daimurelaxed.
He felt a twinge of guilt.
If he hadn't been so busy with company matters and had paid more attention to Metang, perhaps Metang wouldn't have thisproblem.
Then, a long-standing issue resurfaced his mind, one that grew more difficult to resolve as he got older.
As the heir to Devon Manufacturing Corporation and a member of the Sootari family, he had a responsibility he couldn't shirk.
But as a trainer, healsohadtohisorPokemonandhis true aspirations.
He knew a person's energy was limited. If Devon was a smaller company or if his aspirations as a trainerweren't as grand, it wouldn't be a problem.
But—
"Daimu."
Jing He's voice interrupted him.
Followingthevoice, he saw Jing Helayingthe "doodle" folderon the table.
Metang was at a crossroads.
Context: Pokemon
Character Names:
- Gekkou (Japanese:) remains as is, as it's a common practice to keep Japanese names in their original form in Pokemon contexts. However, if an English equivalent is preferred, it could be transliterated to Moonlight.
- Jing He (Chinese:) remains as is, as it's already in a transliterated form.
Rewritten Text:
"Treating Metalix, we can break it down into two steps: psychological counseling and physiological intervention."
He wrote "psychological counseling" and "physiological intervention" on the two diverging paths with his pen, then looked up at Gekkou, asking casually, "Which step do you want to take first?"
Hearing this, Gekkou almost instinctively asked, "Can't we do them together?"
Jing He smiled and continued to draw vertical lines between the two paths with his pen, merging them into a wide, single path. He said meaningfully, "Why not?"
Looking at the merged paths, Gekkou's body trembled slightly, and he looked at Jing He with a stiff expression.
For some reason, he felt that Jing He's words had a deeper meaning. When he met Jing He's meaningful gaze, this feeling grew even stronger.
But Jing He had already put away his folder, leaned back in his chair, and took a sip of coffee. "It's too late today. How about we start tomorrow?"
Gekkou hesitated, then smiled warmly. "Alright."
After Gekkou left, Jing He added a line at the bottom of the paper.
Gekkou — extreme perfectionist.
"Gastly, what do you think this stone is?"
Back in the quiet consultation room, Jing He took out the stone again.
The more he looked at it, the more he felt that the theft at Dr. Solance's house was connected to this stone.
"Kya"
Gastly floated out from the ceiling.
Relieved that Jing He wasn't going to investigate its mishap with the computer, Gastly let out a sigh of relief.
Then it looked puzzled.
It didn't know either.
Maybe it had known at some point, but it had long forgotten why it chose this stone to rest in.
"Could it be a fossil?"
Jing He had to make a relatively reasonable guess.
If it was a fossil of an ancient feathered insect or a tentacle lily, it would still have considerable value.
"Kya?"
Gastly floated in front of the stone, examining it from all angles but couldn't figure it out.
"Should we return it to Dr. Solance?" Jing He asked Gastly, testing the idea.
If this stone was the source of the trouble, returning it to its original owner seemed like a good choice, even if it might be a bit irresponsible. He would try to give some warning.
"Kya! Kya!"
Gastly shook its head vigorously, pointing at the stone in Jing He's hand and then at itself, firmly denying the idea and indicating that it was the true owner of the stone.
Jing He chuckled. "Alright, alright, it does belong to you."
"Kya!"
Gastly's misty form shaped into a hand, patting his shoulder in a "you're a good student" manner.
Jing He gave it a sidelong glance, not bothering to argue, and refocused on the stone.
"Maybe I'm overthinking it. They might have already gotten what they wanted."
Do you really believe that?
This was the look Gastly gave him.
Jing He decided not to dwell on it too much, as he didn't have much control over the situation.
"Gastly, do you feel unwell?"
He remembered that the Pokedex had shown Gastly's condition was not at its best.
"Kya?"
Gastly shook its head in confusion.
Unwell?
No, not really.
Seeing this, Jing He frowned.
Whether it was a Pokemon or a human, the biggest problem was often not feeling unwell when they were actually sick.
While his Pokemon psychology studies had touched on some Pokemon medical knowledge, it wasn't enough to diagnose potential underlying issues.
And with a Ghost-type Pokemon like Gastly, it was even more complicated.
'Should we go to the Pokemon Center?'
But the thought of the cost for a non-League registered trainer to treat a Pokemon at the Pokemon Center gave him a headache.
Money.
It wasn't just the cost of treatment; raising Gastly would also require a significant amount of money.
With no upper limit.
He sighed inwardly.
Fortunately, he had a stable job. Raising Gastly should be manageable.
"Let's continue where we left off."
This morning, Gastly had only demonstrated the beginnings of its moves before being interrupted. Now they finally had time to continue.
"Kya—"
"Other moves are fine, but for 'Hypnosis,' I have some insights."
"For 'Will-O-Wisp,' I believe stealth is more important than speed, though speed is also crucial."
"For 'Confuse Ray,' you can focus more on speed since it's harder to hide, but you could try combining 'Confuse Ray' with 'Will-O-Wisp.'"
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(End of Chapter)
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